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A turning point on climate change?

Police wait to move in to arrest demonstrators in New York after a weekend of protests brought hundreds of thousands on to streets worldwide. (Bryan Thomas / GETTY IMAGES)

Sat., Sept. 27, 2014

Re: The battle of our lives, Sept. 22

Re: Harper under fire from opposition for inaction on climate change, Sept. 23

Re: It’s time for a global treaty on energy efficiency, Opinion Sept. 23

The battle of our lives, Sept. 22

This mobilization of people taking to the streets is a crucial moment; we’re at a crossroads. We need to do this in order to address the greatest crisis in the history of mankind.

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The world is not going to be saved by individual acts of virtue; it’s going to be saved, if it is to be saved, by collective acts of social and political change.

Mass movements work. Unarmed citizens have changed the course of history countless times in the modern era. When we come together as civil society, we have the capacity to transform policies, change old ways of doing things, and sometimes even topple regimes.

And it is about governments. Like it or not, the global treaties, compacts, and agreements we need can only be made by governments, and governments will make those agreements when the pressure to do so is greater than the pressure not to.

We can and must be that pressure.

It feels like this could be the beginning of the fight back we have all been waiting for, the one that will chase Harper from power and restore the power of climate conscious, good hearted citizens of Canada.

Javed Akbar, Ajax

Last Sunday, hundreds of thousands marched in cities throughout the world demanding action on climate change. Some 120 world leaders gathered in New York for the United Nations Summit on Climate Change. What can we do?

A 2006 UN report estimated that meat production accounts for 18 per cent of man-made greenhouse gases. A 2009 article in the respected World Watch magazine suggested that the contribution may be closer to 50 per cent.

The meat industry generates carbon dioxide by burning forests to create animal pastures and by combustion of fossil fuels to confine, feed, transport, and slaughter animals. The much-more damaging methane and nitrous oxide are discharged from digestive tracts of cattle and from animal waste cesspools, respectively.

Our next trip to the supermarket is a great opportunity to start the transition to a sustainable world. Our favourite Internet search engine offers ample product lists, recipes, and dietary tips.

Broderick Best, Toronto

The Star understated the number of people participating in last Sunday’s worldwide climate marches. Your subheadline said that “thousands” joined marches worldwide. In fact, the UN Climate Change website states that 600,000 people participated in more than 2,500 events around the world.

Worse, you reprinted an Associated Press article that erroneously stated that organizers of the New York City march “said more than 100,000 marched in New York.” In fact, 350.org released an initial estimate of 310,000 marchers on Sunday at 3 p.m., and later revised that figure to 400,000 to include marchers outside the official route.

Regular people seeking to press government leaders to act to stem climate chaos (and shift to a fairer and more sustainable economy) have neither the money nor political connections possessed by oil companies and other corporations to press their point.

Instead, we rely on getting large numbers of people in the streets. The media fail us all when it inaccurately reports those numbers.

Michael Polanyi, Toronto

Harper under fire from opposition for inaction on climate change, Sept. 23

Not only is the absence of our PM from this critically important global leaders’ summit on climate change a serious concern, but the latter part of the article lauding his third speech to the UN to address the issue of global maternal, newborn and children’s health is in poor taste, given the state of living conditions on our First Nations’ reservations.

Before making a speech on the world stage about the need for the world to commit resources to addressing maternal, newborn and children’s health, our government needs to commit resources here at home to allow our First Nations population to live and prosper with dignity in proper 21st century living conditions, not in the appalling Third World conditions still evident today.

We need government leaders who truly care about those less fortunate than the 1 per cent.

Pam Tomasevic, Mississauga

If there was an anti-environmental conference at the UN, Stephen Harper would be the first in line to promote the Alberta tar sands and the Keystone Pipeline. Naturally following Harper’s modus operandi, the meeting would have to be top secret so that the average Canadian wouldn’t be privy to his machinations.

There are going to be approximately 125 world leaders at the UN climate change summit. Harper shouldn’t be missed; he’s definitely not a world leader, he is merely an elected figurehead who seeks out every available photo-op. He has absolutely no “environmental conscience.”

Warren Dalton, Scarborough

It’s time for a global treaty on energy efficiency, Opinion Sept. 23

Stephane Dion campaigned in the federal election of 2008 with arguments very similar to Julia Langer’s. He was ridiculed for suggesting a revenue neutral carbon tax to fund energy efficiency.

Stephen Harper has ruled the roost since then and won’t attend the UN Climate Summit in New York, leaving Canada infamously exposed as a country of ignorant wastrels.

Suzanne Mogensen, Toronto

There is no doubt that any idea that lowers carbon emissions in the economy would be a relief for the struggling environment. However, the problem is the scale.

Like other schemes, the clean technology hasn’t been able to reduce carbon emissions substantially and regain the grounds that have been lost to the dominance of consumerism and global economy. I think we can see that if we look at the past performance of emissions trading, Kyoto, and other UN sponsored schemes.

As many scientists have pointed out the root of the problem is the gap between the thirst for economic growth and the need for emission control. As long as we do not acknowledge the strong positive correlation between the economic growth and carbon emissions and do not reduce our dependency to economic growth, greenhouse gas emissions would continue soaring.

Ali Orang, Richmond Hill

Let’s drop the two catch phrases stirring pro and con debates of global warming and climate change. None of these words sufficiently addresses the heart of the issue.

It is not just carbon emissions polluting and heating the air; it’s also chemicals fouling the oceans, as well as excess development ravaging the earth, which threaten human well-being, and ultimately survival.

We see a slow but steady decline of all the good in the environment and a slow and equally steady increase in more and more of the bad. The reason? Rampant over-confidence, arrogance, or willful blindness among the bottom-liners in our midst.

Let’s all remember, we have only one beautiful planet to lose.

Hans Kleefeld, Oakville

There is no end to stories of mayoral candidates meeting the public at street festivals, cultural events and hotdog BBQs. Yet when millions of citizens worldwide, and thousands in Toronto, take to the streets about climate justice, the candidates are absent or silent. Sure, they talk of transit, but in the context of outdoing each other for votes, not with the idea of reducing carbon.

Notably the provincial and federal leaders are similarly indifferent to a people’s movement that is demanding that those same politicians pay attention. The Conservative focus is on profit, growth and jobs.

Yet are these initiatives will not bring back animal species disappearing from the earth, nor reduce the acidification of the oceans or protect coastal cities from rising oceans. More severe storms, the decline in bee colonies, and the poisoning of air and water is nature sending us all an alarm. And the politicians are deaf to it all.

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